New Tools,Old Biases: The Harm and Potential of Virtual Reality Technology and Policy Recommendations for Black Women

Abstract

This paper critically examines the ethical concerns and harms associated with virtual reality (VR) technology, emphasizing their disproportionate impact on Black women and members of other multiply marginalized social groups. While VR offers significant potential across sectors, its development and deployment often perpetuate longstanding biases, resulting in privacy risks, lack of accountability, and cultural erasure. Key VR harms are enumerated—such as limited representation, intensified surveillance, and inadequate recourse for harassment—which are often amplified for individuals at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. This paper highlights how current VR policy approaches often overlook these compounded vulnerabilities. To address these gaps, the authors propose intersectional VR policy recommendations: enhancing user autonomy and accountability through rolling consent and robust reporting mechanisms; advancing intersectional representation via early education, inclusive recruitment, and community-based participatory research; and leveraging the lived expertise of Black women and members of other multiply marginalized groups to unlock VR's liberatory potential. These intersectional strategies are essential for equitable and socially transformative VR policy.